Why I sell books, by Corps member

Aware of the scarcity of white collar jobs, some graduates, especially members of the National Youth Service Corps, are taking to self-employment.

One of such graduates is Saduden Moshood Abiola, who graduated from the Lagos State University (LASU).

Moshood, who studied Biology Education, is currently serving in Ondo State. A Batch ‘A’ Corps member, he is on his primary assignment at Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo.

Not satisfied with the paltry monthly allowance given to Corps members, he decided to pick up another job to complement the monthly allowance he receives.

Apart from running private lessons for secondary school students, he also sells books.

Moshood markets all kinds of books, especially inspirational ones. Such books as 48 Laws of Power; The Secret of Success; Talent is not Enough, among other collections are always on display at his book stand.

Newsextra encountered him at the convocation ceremony of Adeyemi College of Education.

Decked in his NYSC uniform, Moshood, a native of Ilorin in Kwara State, humbled himself at his book stand attending to customers who had come for the convocation ceremony unmindful of the discomfort from the scorching sun.

For him, the event was an opportunity to make quick money as he claimed that he sold more than 200 books during the week-long occasion.

According to him, he has always loved to be self-reliant; which informed his decision to further his education after graduating from Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education where he studied Integrated Science.

He said: “After graduating from the college of education, I pondered over what the future holds in store for me. After a critical reflection on the economic situation in the country, I concluded that there was need to further my education. I must acquire more knowledge if I would be successful in life.

“Although it was rough and tough, I had to go for more qualifications. This is so because in our present society, one must have good qualification in order to get good job.”

With the current situation in the country, Moshood believes that getting white collar job may be difficult. The way graduates search for job has continued to give him sleepless nights.

“It has always given me serious concern the way our graduates search for job. It is sad that we have found ourselves in this situation where you have to search for job endlessly.

“I have seen a situation where about 20,000 people applied for just 20 job vacancies. How is it possible for a sizeable number of applicants to get job in such situation? Nigeria has become a country where merit does not count any more. It has become a situation where who you know counts in getting a job.

“If you don’t know any highly placed individual in the society, you may not get a job no matter how good your grade is,” he lamented

This uncomplimentary situation might have spurred Moshood to venture into book selling. As a married man, he knows it is his responsibility to fend for his immediate and extended families which the monthly allowance he receives will not be enough to take care of.

“I realised that I can no longer survive on my allowance. So, I had to look for a way to survive. Apart from running a private home lesson with a friend, I also sell books to make ends meet.

“As somebody who is conversant with Lagos, I go there to buy books at wholesale rate and comedown to Ondo to sell them on different occasions. The gain I make on the sales is more than what I earn as allowance from the Federal Government and the management of Adeyemi College of Education.

“In Nigeria, you have to think fast and be ready to diversify. If I get job after the NYSC year, I will be happy. But if there is no job, I will continue to sell books to take care of my family. I am not ashamed that as a graduate I hawk books around,” he said.

Moshood said he plans to own a large bookshop in no distant time. All he needs, he said, is N500, 000.

Although he has been saving part of his allowances and the proceeds from the sale of books, he believes opening a book store will assist him in realising his dreams.

He said: “I need good amount of money to expand this business. If I can get up to N500, 000 to invest in this business, I will become a millionaire within one year.”

Moshood has words of advice for his colleagues who are still waiting to get white collar jobs. He opined that youths should endeavour to learn one trade or the other in addition to their educational qualifications.

“It is true that most youths want to have lucrative jobs. They want to work in oil companies and banks. But in the face of the high rate of unemployment, they need to change their attitude and be self-reliant.

“They need to make use of their brains and God-given talents to survive. There are other skills to acquire like tailoring and welding. If one is good in these trades in addition to one’s educational qualification, one will surely excel,” he said.